How Do You Choose The Right Payday Loan or Short Term Instalment Loan Provider?

When you search the internet for payday loans your search will reveal all sorts of payday providers. Payday loan lender sites, payday loan broker sites, payday loan possibly but-it's-hard-to-tell sites. Having too much choice could cost you more than having no choice at all!

Here we set out some hints and tips to help you select a payday loans lender. This is not a complete list and there may be other factors you will want to consider when choosing a payday loans provider.

Look for a clear, well presented site. A payday website with spelling and grammar mistakes may not be legitimate.

Ensure you can see the lender is 'authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority' - this will usually appear in the footer of the website's home page. There should be an firm reference number here too.

All lenders are required to display the following statement on their website pages: "Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help, go to moneyadviceservice.org.uk".

While searching on the internet, if the website you found is different to what the search shows when you click the link, then this is another warning sign.

Look for a business name (and/or trading name), telephone and postal address.

If the site gives you some kind of loan cost calculator for payday loans, it should also show a representative example, which will give you information on a representative payday loan, including how much you would repay in total and the cost of credit.

Be clear whether you are on a payday loans lender website or a payday loans broker website: for payday loan lender sites like us:

Although trade association membership is not mandatory for payday loans providers, if the site displays a trade association logo and membership number this provides additional re-assurance for consumers, because trade association members have to adhere to their association's code of practice

Look for a link to the Good Practice Customer Charter on payday loan lender websites. This provides additional protections for consumers thinking about taking out payday loans over and above those provided in law

Be sure to read the privacy policy and/or data protection policy

All 3 of these items can be found at the bottom of all our webpages.

Responsible payday lenders like ourselves will make it clear that payday loans are unsuitable for longer term borrowing or if you are in financial difficulty.